Youth Councils

We spent the weekend at Salvation Army Youth Councils. They were held at Chinyika - about 45 minutes outside of Harare. I'm not good at estimating numbers, but I would guess that there were at least 700 youth in attendance. All of the meetings were outdoors, and yes, we got sunburned on the first day. We went up with the youth group from Harare City Corps, and pitched a tent (borrowed from the police) in the middle of the field to sleep in. We cooked all of our own food on a little campfire, and there was no running water, so we brought big barrels of it from the city.

Salvation Army uniforms were compulsory for the weekend. To me, it felt odd to be camping in uniform, but when in Rome... Sunday morning, we also had a march of witness where we all lined up with a brass band and flags and marched around the field, finally to salute some officers at the end. It felt very festive, but I'm still a bit unsure of who we were witnessing to (although there were some cows in the field that probably didn't know much about Jesus or The Salvation Army).

I was really blessed by the youth that we met on the weekend. They were very prayerful, joyful, kind and respectful. Devotions started at 6am, and yet youth were singing and praying throughout the night as well. They just seemed very sincere in their desire to come before God.

I was also really blessed by a few of the young women who accepted me and helped me find my way on the weekend. Sometimes I feel very ignorant around African women, because I'm not very "domestic" and I'm very "city." But with grace and kindness, they showed me how to do simple things in new ways - like peeling potatoes or washing dishes while conserving water. The first night, I was surprised by an alarm that went off at 4am. I discovered that it meant that all the women were to get up and bathe (while it was still dark so we would not be seen). I was so thankful that Hilda helped me locate a bucket (I hadn't thought to bring one) and then find some water, then some hot water, and just find a good location to bathe in some tall grass in the field. She didn't judge me or wonder why I didn't know the basics of bathing, but just accepted me and helped me find the way. Does that make sense?

We still can't access the web, but hopefully this post will be succesful, because we do want to keep you somewhat posted on our lives here. Oh, and I've heard that a lot of e-mails are being bounced back, but please keep trying, because it is the right address.